Viator victor thanks to bombs, defense

The St. Viator's boys basketball team came out hitting a flurry of 3-pointers against visiting Palatine at the Cahill Gym on Thursday night.

However, even though they finished with 9 long-distance buckets, the Lions will tell you that defense down the stretch won the nonconference game 63-53.

K.J. Sherwood (12 points) hit the Lions' ninth 3-pointer for a 53-35 lead with under two minutes left in the third quarter.

But the pesky Pirates kept battling back and got to within 6 on junior Mykyta Cheshko's 3-point play with 45 seconds left.

The Lions defense dug in for the final 40 seconds, as Alan Aboona (12 points) and Bryce Hensley (11 points) each sank 2 free throws to secure the win.

"Even though we have a conference game at St. Joseph (today), we came out ready," Hensley said. "We did not want to look past Palatine."

"That's a nice young team that's going to be good," said veteran Lions coach Joe Majkowski about the Pirates.

The Lions (13-7) were good offensively much of the way, and they led 48-31 when Richard McLoughlin (8 points) scored on a rebound layup with 3:21 left in the third quarter.

But Pirates senior Mark Knoeppel scored all 14 of his points in the second half to help keep his team threatening.

"I thought Mark played a real nice game," said Pirates rookie coach Eric Millstone. "He has given us a lot of leadership all season, and this game he provided us the offensive production."

Junior Brendan King (12 points) led the Lions' 3-point barrage with four.

"We knew they had the good shooters," Millstone said. "They just had it locked in for a while (six in the first half). We needed more of a sense of urgency on defense in the first half. That's what helped us get back into the game in the second half. It was missing in the first half."

Junior Nat Pearson added 13 for the Pirates (3-17), and Matt Rossi had 12.

"Our game kind of revolves around when we are making shots," King said. "When we don't, our defense tends to lack energy. That's something we must change. Coach always tells us you can control defense."

"The balanced scoring was nice to see," Majkowski said. "We try to tell the kids to make plays for the team and not for themselves. We certainly did that most of the time. It got a little sloppy there but we pulled together for the final minutes."